Barn Hay Fever

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

Love seeing an old barn saved and restored. Many times they are tore down and a pole building built, due to the economics of usable space.

Our home built n the 1880's unfortunately had all the buildings taken out before we bought it. (Many have told me it is probably for the best)

I give you many props for saving it and the great work your doing!

 

[Kevin54]

Kevin54

That's the corn crib, corn is stored on the vented side. When dried it was then shucked & sent upstairs via 5" x 15'' hoppers attached to a chain conveyor (tower part)& dumped upstairs for storage. When needed or sold to the local grain elevator, you pulled in your grain truck & there's slots in the upstairs floors that open by a wooded slid hatch, gravity filled up your truck & off you went. I might have to take that building down & salvage the wood. The work involved in saving it out weights the practical use for it.
We found these old barn lights at an auction. I rewired them & hung 10 of them. So we can see what we're doing. So we started replacing the floor.

Thanks Guys
This year the Barn will be 100 yrs old we’ll be making the final push to finish the outside. Here’s a few more details on the corn crib. After the corn dried it was shucked & sent up the bucket conveyor to the Hopper with directional shoot to distribute the corn in the storage rooms. When corn prices went up the farmer would pull his grain truck in, slide the hatch open & gravity fill his truck.

I sure hope you rethink the idea of tearing that section down. That is one portion that adds to the barn and separates it from others around. I'm sure that you could find some sort of use for it. Just ask the question and I KNOW FOR A FACT that you will get answers what to use it for. And as for the conveyor, if that's what it is, I would not tear it out, but dismantle it, clean it up, refurbish it, paint it and leave it in the place it is. That is another unique item that you don't see anymore.

With your wifes business, and possibly another business or two, possibly a craft shop, and something along the lines of maybe a Fresh Produce store, plus have some barn tours, you could make a little coin off of it to help offset the cost of rehabbing the barn. Plant an acre of pumpkins for Fall.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that you don't tear off what adds character.

 

[HAY YOU]

BJ70
Thanks for the first hand insight how this operation worked.

BD1
My wife is proud of her Dutch heritage so we do keep all receipts (MMMMMM… maybe that’s why we’re doing all the work ourselves) we have checked into grants with no luck. But that’s okay we have certain plans & we follow them regardless of what the rest of the world does or doesn’t do.

Kevin54
We did spend 2 hours in the corn crib looking at it & thinking about what we could use it for. Really is an interesting place. But first we need to finish the barn.

 

[CNGsaves]

+1 to SAVE The Corn Crib . . . . . that's a cool building!!

Actually following Kevin54 idea, you could have your own mini farmer's market and call the place. . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Corn and Pumpkin Crib !!


Plant an acre of corn in plain view of the barn, and same for pumpkins. Corn would be your summer crop and pumpkins fall crop. Even if the acre of crops couldn't keep up with demand, you could purchase from some other local larger farmer. Having the corn and pumpkins would be draw to get customers out for the antique shop, etc. . . . and to SEE The Barn!!

Heck saving the barn and having it become well known could lead to paid tours . . . . 30,000 people a year paying $2 or $3 bucks would add up over the long-haul.

Go For It . . . . SAVE That Corn Crib !!

 

[HAY YOU]

I like the way you guys think. We do plant a corn maze and we put on an annual kids Halloween party upstairs in the barn. The lean-to between the barn & corn crib was going to be our train shed that would take kids out to the pumpkin patch. But I have more ideas then I have money. So we’ll see what this year brings.
Regards Dave

 

[mdkingsley]

Another pro corn crib here, keep up the awsome work!

 

[shopnut]

Seeing your old barn, especially the interior shots of the lower floor, brings back many fond memories of my childhood messing around inside my parents dairy barn. Thanks for sharing your story.

This picture shows the day I moved all the last of my stuff out of the place and brought it down to FL before they sold it. That was actually a very sad day for me.

I managed to snag an old piece of the barn before leaving and it now lives on inside my shop in the form of a perimeter library ladder track system (which happens to be missing an essential part in this picture ).

I see you have a very similar track system running through your barn as shown at the top of this picture:

Do you happen to have any of the parts associated with it, like the trolley wheels that ran on it? It's likely you might find them useful in your place, but if not, let me know if you want to sell them - I'm certain I could put them to good use.

Keep up the great work! That place is going to be so cool when you are finished. Heck, it's pretty dang cool already!

 

[HAY YOU]

Shopnut
Sorry I don’t have any trolley wheels yet. I sure like how you set up your rail system.

 

[80WTI_55_CHEV]

You have taken the term (barn find) to a new level, love it and keep them pics coming.

 

[shopnut]

Shopnut
Sorry I don’t have any trolley wheels yet. I sure like how you set up your rail system.

Thanks. Sounds like I may have some competition looking for more wheels

You might be interested in this book (available at this link: The James Way)



It's about building a barn in the early 1900's and has some great illustrations on structures and systems you might find inside.

Here's a couple pages from it (click picture to enlarge):

 

[Stuart in MN]

You might be interested in this book (available at this link: The James Way)

Neat book! I found another related item on that website, a catalog for barn and garage hardware: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/74777#page/63/mode/1up

 

[Kevin54]

You could always check around with some Amish for trolley wheels. I would imagine they have a source for anything for barns.

 

[nmcqueen469]

Any progress on this? This is a FANTASTIC restoration!

 

[HAY YOU]

We use the barn regularly as these recent pics of our son’s grad party show. We stopped major work on it for 2 yrs. only because the state was looking to put a highway in about 1000 feet from us. And we thought we better hold up in case they decided their needed our property for their entrance ramp. Well the highway is going in 3 miles north of us, so now it’s back to work. The corn crib with its drive thru design might just become are mech. shop with parts storage upstairs.